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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to